CHURCH HEALTH CONSULTATION

HOW IT WORKS: The Consultation Process

Phase 1: Church Health Assessment
The first step toward a Church Health Consultation is a site visit to your church by your consulting team to assess the church's needs and potential, and to serve as a basis for proposing possible next steps for strengthening church health.

To prepare for this visit, your church will conduct the Natural Church Development survey and complete a brief (3- to 4-page) self-study that can be completed in a few hours.

The Assessment Visit is usually a one-day visit by a two-person consulting team. The team will meet with church staff members and perhaps other key ministry leaders, mostly to listen and gather information. They will then meet with your Leadership Team–staff, governing board members, and key ministry leaders–for two to three hours to present your NCD scores, to give a preliminary assessment of the most important challenges facing the church, and to outline what would be involved in a full Church Health Consultation.  If it is important to you that the consulting team experience your Sunday worship services during the Assessment Visit, you should schedule a Saturday/Sunday Assessment Visit.

Following the Assessment Visit, your consulting team will send you brief written recommendations. If they believe  Living Stones could help you achieve your church health goals, your written recommendations will include a proposal for the next steps of the consultation process, a time frame for completing them, and fees. You can then determine if you wish to continue to a full Church Health Consultation process.

When you schedule a Church Health Assessment, neither you nor Living Stones is committing to working beyond the Assessment Visit.

If your leaders are already convinced of the need of a full Church Health Consultation without first conducting the Assessment Visit, we will sometimes waive the Assessment Visit to minimize cost to the church. 
Phase 2: Church Health Consultation
A Church Health Consultation takes place over a period of about 14 months and includes the following:

  • An extensive month-long self-study
  • A 3- to 5-day launch site visit by your consulting team, typically a strategic planning visit, an all-church retreat, a leadership retreat, or some combination of these. The purpose of this visit is to develop and launch a strategic plan for improving the church's health over the coming year.
  • 12 months of ministry coaching by a member of your consulting team, including unlimited phone and email access to your coach.
  • Optional depending on your needs:  An in-depth written report and recommendations. 
  • A second Natural Church Development survey 12 to 24 months after your first survey to monitor your progress in improving church health and to identify where focused attention is required for the coming year.
  • Usually at least two additional coaching visits by your Church Health Coach, the first typically 4 to 5 months after the launch site visit; the other about 11 months after the launch visit. The length and agenda of these visits will be tailored to your needs. If your church is within easy commute distance for your coach, it may work for you to have more frequent, shorter coaching visits.
  • Finally, if you are interested in continuing the coaching relationship, we will prepare  a written proposal for another year's church health coaching. We contract for coaching on a year-by-year basis, tailoring each year's program to the specific needs of your church.